30000 BC
This proto-lang will be made in the equivalent of 30,000 BCE. This constitutes the Upper Paleolithic. It will be for an alien species which is (what a coincidence) biologically very similar to humans, but is probably different in some way. Maybe their hands are made differently or they can climb trees a bit better, or maybe their mouths are even shaped slightly differently. But they think in terms of predicates. What words? Phonology/Orthography Vowels /e/ - somewhere near a mid-front vowel, but can degrade in fast speech to sound like /i/ or /a/ /i/ - high front vowel, similar to j in intensity, never degrades /a/ - most variable sound; is a back low vowel, but can shift to any low vowel and many mid vowels /u/ - mostly distinguished from /a/ by closeness of the lips; always a back vowel; most similar, at its core, to the Japanese u a only counts as a back vowel if it is alone or before u. Otherwise, it is neutral in the sense that it doesn't change consonants as if it's a back vowel. Acceptable diphthongs are /ae/, /au/, /ua/, /ue/. Consonants /b/ - bilabial plosive; /m/ - bilabial nasal; /d/ - alveolar ; inches closer to the front of the mouth before /e/ and /i/ and diphthongs and closer to the back before back vowels /s/ - alveolar fricative; partially voiced and palatalized before /e/ or /i/ /n/ - alveolar nasal; follows the same rules as /d/ /l/ - alveolar lateral; is an affricate before back vowels and an approximant elsewhere /g/ - velar stop; is palatalized before /e/ and /i/ /h/ - back fricative; can be palatal fricative before /e/ and /i/, while is uvular/glottal fricative before back vowels Words XaYane - (X happens) such that (Y happens) abae - (to be) fruit abau - (to be) (a) bone adage - to be done, to be made, to be spoken of ahuedi - (to be) nature or god alabe - to have fun with something alaela - (to be) grass anasi - (to be) a human anaude - (to be) a herbivore which is undesirable anausu - (to be) a bird on the ground asue - to die which is bad asuse - specific knife used to cut things open most cleanly, to cut auguma - (to be) a large herbivore, to be eaten, to be edible eida - (to be) day, the sun elahi - (to be) a bird in the sky emabe - stone esiba - to be affected by something ibi - to be the speaker idule - to be similar igigu - to listen and/or learn igu - to be the listener/audience imau - to be at a specific place inaeba - to charge forward isima - sneakily stalk uba - walk brashly ubudumua - to lightning and/or thunder, to shake, to make the ground electric, to arrive or come nearer (of the mythical monster) ubuha - to do, make, or speak of something ude - to die which is good udude - (to be) a carnivore which is undesirable uge - (animal) to be dangerous in an admirable way, (human) to be renowned ugebe - club to break things; to smash ugeuba - to walk (like) an animal, with grace ugu - rain, (of rain) to fall, to attack ineffectively but relentlessly umau - be approached (by something else which was walking) umi - (to be) a cloud usisu - to whisper Grammar Word Order *The language is very strictly SV for its simple sentences. *The more complex (transitive sentences) have this setup: **X-XVerb-YVerb-Y-XaYane **I don't know if this means that they aren't predicates anymore. Reduplication *Reduplication of the first syllable implies an iterative nature. *Reduplication of the last two syllables implies a habitual/gnomic nature. **/i/ after /u/ becomes /e/; igigu -> igigu{igu} -> igiguegu Underlying Non-Predicates There are some underlying non-predicates. These are prefixes which attach to the beginning of the word and signify connected things. They generally go in this order, from first to last: *b- *m- *d- *n- *g- *h- I didn't create them as pronouns, but that is what they can theoretically be glossed as. Predicates which refer to the same thing Sentences Bauguma bimau bapau. - The animal which could have been eaten is now at a specific place and is now a skeleton. (SUBJ1-eaten.animal SUBJ1-at.place SUBJ1-be.bone) Bapau bimau baugama. - The skeleton over there is an animal. Buge bisima mumau mibi bamane. - The exalted one sneakily stalks me. Bisima buge mumau mibi bamane. - The one who stalks is exalted and comes near me. Buge bisima mesiba mibi bamane. - The exalted one sneakily stalks and it affects me in some way. Bisima buge mesiba mibi bamane. - The one who sneaks is exalted, which affects me somehow. Bahuedi bubuha mauguma Culture Names come from the baby's first babbling; they can have phonemes and phonotactic structures which don't appear in the language, like consonant clusters or syllable-final sounds. Story Beugabi binaeba masue manasi bamane. The herbivore charged and killed one person. Category:Language Families Category:Languages